Lafayette Is Not Here - September 6, 2007 - The New York Sun

Here in New York we were to be "divided and conquered" using the Hudson River to separate the colonies into north and south and thereby the American Revolution was to be put down. George Washington as America's general lost the "Battle of Long Island" the first major battle and barely escaped to what today is Westchester county, he and the troops narrowly escaped, their retreat defended by John Glover during the Battle of Pell's Point in the American Revolutionary War in the Bronx in NYC. The USS Glover was the only turbine driven ship in the US Navy, commemorating John Glover's Marblehead, Massachusetts heritage. A series of "Great Chains" were stretched across the Hudson River to stop the advance of the British Navy. Those were defeated by Admiral Cornwallis and many battles ensued in the south Hudson Valley. Admiral Cornwallis had also been ordered to sail up the Bronx River by King George (who may have been poisoned from the wig of the Admiral Cornwallis according to some recent forensic analysis, see herein Admiral Cornwallis and the Bronx River (Oct. 10, 2004): "For 'arsenic and old lace' one might look at this interesting scientific analysis of King George and Admiral Cornwallis' wig [or was] at Scientifics"). To defeat the rebels at White Plains, an impossible task, except perhaps in a canoe. General Washington and his troops on the east shore of the Hudson River were joined by 6000+ French troops who had disembarked at Providence, Rhode Island and marched across New England. The various state historic preservation offices involved have been searching for some of the encampments that had to have been created en route. Here its thought, they may have convinced General Washington to not invade New York City, where many were in and had died in dis-masted prison ships in the harbors, and to join the combined French fleet to arrive off of Virginia. According to Barbara Tuchman ("The First Salute") General Washington observed the combined troops crossing from a tall wooden tower above the bank of the Hudson River, so any advancing troops in ships or boats from the British held New York City, could be seen. I have seen other "evidence" of Washington's use of towers elsewhere in the New York region, perhaps, where information could be gathered, i.e., the former Valentine House now under the grounds of St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, NY where one could see from an elevated vantage point, both the Hudson River and the Long Island Sound. The US National Trust headquarters at Lyndhurst in Tarrytown, NY has two white busts on exhibit, one of George Washington and the other of Gilbert de Mortier, formerly the Marquis de Lafayette (until 1790, when he renounced any royal title). He revisited the United States in 1834, receiving honorary citizenship, commemorated in some of the ceramic dinnerware of the time I've cataloged from the archaeology of the South Street Seaport in New York City.